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Robert Siemer
Asked: 2016-09-08 11:18:37 +0800 CST

Unpair/remove Bluetooth devices in 16.04.1? (And other problems.)

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I'm on a fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04.1, but are fighting with many Bluetooth problems. -- I was surprised that the Internet is not plastered with bug reports. Is it only me? Bluetooth worked fine for years with my last 14.04 install.

  • Bluetooth indicator shows Bluetooth "off", settings show "on" (see screenshot)
    • to reproduce: this happens quite often, just toggle the switches couple of times
  • indicator shows three paired devices, settings shows only one (see screenshot)
    • happened after a bunch of unsuccessful pairing trials
    • How can I unpair/remove those devices?
  • indicator disappears, even though "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar" is enabled
    • to reproduce: switch off Bluetooth in the settings window

enter image description here

16.04

1 Answers

  1. The GUI from the screenshot seems hosed at least to some degree, so use the command line tool bluetoothctl. It is interactive and has a help command. 

    $ bluetoothctl 
[NEW] Controller 3C:77:E6:F0:01:EA x200 [default]
[NEW] Device A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A Xperia Z1 Compact
[NEW] Device 20:15:04:10:D3:AE LT1282
[NEW] Device F2:06:91:3F:EE:9A UniversalFoldableKb

[bluetooth]# list
Controller 3C:77:E6:F0:01:EA x200 [default]

[bluetooth]# devices
Device A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A Xperia Z1 Compact
Device 20:15:04:10:D3:AE LT1282
Device F2:06:91:3F:EE:9A UniversalFoldableKb

[bluetooth]# info A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A
Device A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A
    Name: Xperia Z1 Compact
    Alias: Xperia Z1 Compact
    Class: 0x5a020c
    Icon: phone
    Paired: no
    Trusted: no
    Blocked: no
    Connected: no
    LegacyPairing: no
    UUID: [output shortened here]
    Modalias: usb:v0FCEp01A7d0010

[bluetooth]# remove A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A
Failed to remove device: org.bluez.Error.NotReady

[bluetooth]# power on
Changing power on succeeded
[CHG] Controller 3C:77:E6:F0:01:EA Powered: yes

[bluetooth]# remove A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A
[DEL] Device A0:E4:53:A3:AD:6A Xperia Z1 Compact
Device has been removed

    As can be seen, visibility of a devices in the indicator does not mean that they are all paired or trusted (...so I have no idea what it means to see a device there).

    It is also surprising that remove did not work while the Bluetooth controller is off...

    Regarding the issue with the icon disappearing: to my surprise the Bluetooth controller can be in two off-states (at least on the system shown).

    • "Powered: no" as shown by bluetoothctl
      • the controller will be visible to Bluetooth tools
      • the indicator icon will be there, in gray, and show that Bluetooth is off
    • totally off, as if the Bluetooth controller would be unplugged
      • icon disappears, like as if no Bluetooth hardware is present
      • Bluetooth tools see no controller

    How to control off-states?

    The command line tool rfkill controls the rfkill-subsystem which handles software switches for radio devices. rfkill list bluetooth will reveal two Bluetooth relevant devices: the "main switch" and the controller itself (only visible if the Bluetooth main switch is "on").

    $ rfkill list bluetooth
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
11: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
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